Experts reconstruct face of ‘Juanita’, Peru’s most famous mummy
- Scientists use three-dimensional scans of mummy to help produce lifelike recreation
- Teen girl was likely sacrificed more than 500 years ago to appease Incan gods
The possible living face of Peru’s most famous mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual more than 500 years ago atop the Andes, was unveiled on Tuesday.
The silicone-made bust portrays a young woman with pronounced cheekbones, black eyes and tanned skin.
Produced by a team of Polish and Peruvian scientists who worked with a Swedish sculptor specialising in facial reconstructions, it was presented in a ceremony at the Andean Sanctuaries Museum of the Catholic University of Santa Maria in Arequipa.
“I thought I’d never know what her face looked like when she was alive,” said Johan Reinhard, the US anthropologist who found the mummy known as “Juanita” and the “Inca Ice Maiden”.
Reinhard discovered the mummy in 1995 at an altitude of more than 6,000 metres (19,685 feet) on the snow-capped Ampato volcano.
“Now 28 years later, this has become a reality thanks to Oscar Nilsson’s reconstruction,” he said.